southern france-arles and??
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- pylon0
Go to Nîmes, you won't be sorry. Like Arles it has an old colliseum and many other roman artifacts. It's also got a very vibrant arts community and music scene (Avignon too).
Orange is nice for a day trip. Aix-en-Provence is close as well. Both have stunning roman ruins but not much else, other than a pretty honest slice of provençal life as soon as you're out of the touristy areas.
Nice is a great city. You could spend weeks there. If you've got a car (there's also a train and bus) you can drive to Monte-Carlo (about a half-hour). If you're into driving you can drive from Menton (just outside of Monte-Carlo) up the (D70 or the 922 or something, can't remember off the top of my head) Col de Turini. It's an amazing drive — but you'll need your wits and a car with some guts.
Also, St Paul de Vence is just outside of Nice and has some really great food off the tourist path as well as the Maeght Gallery. Vence is a very old walled medieval city.If you'd rather go East and South, be sure to check out the Camargue (salt marshes with wild horses). Head to Saintes Maries de la Mer, basically a pirates cove and Romani gypsy town at the bottom of the marshes, in the Med. Very cool and it's drivable from Arles, maybe two hours. Worth the trip. Not far from Saintes Maries is Aigues Mortes, another walled town.
Whilst in Arles or Nîmes you should check out the bull-fighting that takes place in the those ancient colleseums. It's really amazing actually.
Ping me if you've got questions.
- Oh yeah, Nîmes is cool too... I enjoyed it more than Orange (bout the same as Avignon). Saw some cool bands there!ismith